Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Apple's command+tab app switcher is more analogous to Windows alt+tab app switcher. Show desktop in Windows is similar to one part of Exposé, but saying Apple copied it is just...well, not intelligent.
This needs some more description for the Windows trolls.
Command+tab switching is not part of Expose as evidenced by the fact that it has been around on Mac OS X since 10.1? and you can't control it from the Expose preference pane. What has changed in Panther is the fact that it pops open a window of apps to switch through which is similar to Windows (before it would switch in the Dock but this was unpopular). I'll note that the command+tab application switcher on the Mac looks much nicer (takes up full size, icons dynamically sized, translucent layer, etc.). This is a feature that has been copied from Proteron LiteSwitchX more than from Microsoft Windows. Proteron made LiteSwitch from Mac OS 8 as a freeware part of their GoMac which emulated the Windows Start Bar on Mac OS. I should mention that if there was any intellectual property here that was lifted (patents, copyrights and the like) from Microsoft they had the opportunity to sue Proteron as well as FVWM and a whole slew of other Unix window managers a long time ago.
Either Microsoft was being nice and decided that it would be good for their IP to go into the public domain or there is simply no IP in the user interface of Windows 95 that can stand any sort of legal test. Which reason is the real one is open for debate, but from recent quotes from their CEO regarding open source probably exclude the former.
Looks to me that if anybody has cause to bitch at Apple it is Proteron.
Now the big difference between LiteSwitchX and Panther's Command+Tab vs. Microsofts is that the latter switches between windows and the former switches between apps. This is because Windows users expand all windows to take the entire screen and then command-tab between them while Mac users use drag and drop and have a global menubar so don't want fully expanded windows. In other words different application models means different behavior is optimal. This can be annoying when switching because you have to learn to "command-tab" to the application and then "command-`" to the window... something which I see very few Mac users suggesting to recent switchers (a pity).
Clearly this in no way resembles Expose. In fact one of the features is not only impossible but impractical in the Windows world (exposing all windows in a given application). I don't think the windows thumbs are live updated, in fact for the most part they represent proxies of the actual window probably coped from a virtual window manager in Unix). They were just icons until Windows XP.
Getting back on topic. Clearly if Apple owns the patent on Piles than the description of this minor addition to Longhorn sounds like an obvious violation. Microsoft either licensed Piles from Apple or feels they can weather or pay off the lawsuit. Don't count out the former! Piles is old stuff and I seem to remember there was some IP exchange as part of the IE on Mac for Office on Mac and a few million bucks red herring thing from way back. For all we know, Microsoft can cherry pick Piles from the Apple... in fact, a lot of ex-Apple employees now work for Microsoft so it could have been one of them or maybe Microsoftie was reading MacRumors or somesuch and got the idea from there. *shrug* The whole feature must not be that impressive if Apple hasn't introduced it in 3 iterations of Mac OS X.
As for the Expose the desktop. Who is stealing from whom? I can remember option-clicking on the desktop in my Mac way back before Windows 95 and I'm not too sure when command-option-clicking (which hides all open apps) came into existence. I can remember back in the days window shade came out you could command-option or option-click on the shade button to do the Mac equivalent of Show Desktop. There has been an identical Windows-esque Show Desktop freeware for Mac OS X called (surprise!) "Show Desktop" for a while now. The reason nobody knows about it is because Mac users don't want it... they don't operate on windows the the same way Windows users do (see above).
All of this, as mentioned by Rower has nothing to do with Expose. With Expose, you can fly the windows away from the desktop, operate in finder, grab the icon you need, and fly the windows back in to drag it to the appropriate place. See? You leverage drag-and-drop. If the Windows world actually used that feature, they'd understand what Expose is so important to Mac users.
All Expose is trying to offer the features of command-tab switching or virtual desktops (around long before Microsoft even had a "Windows") without the cumbersome burden it places on Mac users workflow-- I mean not losing drag and drop, not losing live update, not requireing a rewrite of the windows attached to apps model, not creating a dicontinuous transition from a beginner to power user without a reams of documentation or classes and certifications, etc.).
Being "totally cool" also coincides with being Mac. If that wasn't the case, there wouldn't be a genie effect turned on by default when minimizing to the Dock.
And Expose is "totally cool". As one hard-core unix developer called to another after looking at my Powerbook over my shoulder, "Come here you gotta see Apple's answer to Virtual Desktops--this alone is a reason to buy a Mac!"
Take care,
terry
